Author, Author (episode)
Voyager receives another surprise from Starfleet Command – a new means of direct and instantaneous communication with home, allowing the crew to finally talk with their long-lost family and friends. Summary Using an opportunity of communication with home, the Doctor publishes his memoirs as a holodeck novel, which portrays an EMH on a ship called ''Vortex'' in an attempt to draw attention to the oppression of his fellow holograms. Unfortunately, he uses his own situation as the setting for his story, changing the names of crew mates only slightly and using their physical parameters as a base for the characters, making only superficial changes to their appearance and names. Their personalities, however, bear no resemblance to the ''Voyager'' crew. In the opening scene, the analogue to Captain Janeway, Captain Jenkins, shoots a severely injured crewman to force the doctor to treat her helmsman who has a minor injury. The story proceeds with the entire crew of the starship Vortex treating the EMH as a slave void of all feeling. The holo character doctor's mobile emitter is portrayed as a heavy metal pack. In the end of the story, Captain Jenkins orders the EMH to eliminate all his subroutines not strictly related to the medical profession. The EMH refuses and is then decompiled by the Captain as a result. After the story has been transmitted to a publisher as a rough draft which the Doctor has asked to be allowed to refine before release, the crew takes turns running the program and are horrified by a portrayal which will obviously be interpreted as being the real conditions aboard Voyager. Furious with the Doctor, they ask him to alter the holonovel to eliminate the similarities between the holo characters and themselves. The Doctor refuses, claiming that the characters are not truly based on the Voyager crew. The next time the Doctor runs his holonovel he finds that Tom Paris has switched the file with his own holonovel. This holonovel portrays a doctor aboard the [[USS Voyeur|USS Voyeur]] who cares nothing for patients he cannot seduce and pursues his own recreational activities while forcing his job off onto the medic. The physical appearance of this holo character is, of course, nearly identical to the Doctor. The Doctor is appalled and confronts Paris who throws the Doctor's own logic that the character was not based on the Doctor back at him. The Doctor does not seem swayed and Paris relents and tells him where to find the backup copy of the original holonovel. After this the Doctor does realize that he needs to alter the holo characters to not cast doubt on the reputations of his friends, however, the crew finds that the rough draft of the holonovel has already been published. Outraged the Doctor demands an explanation of the publisher who makes the claim that since the doctor is not a person, he has no rights as author of the novel. This results in a Federation tribunal to determine the Doctor's rights carried out across the 13 or so minutes of communication that can be managed each day. Captain Janeway brings in various members of the crew as witnesses to the Doctor's claim of personhood. Oddly enough, no reference was made to the case in which it was decided that Lt. Commander Data was a person with the full rights of any other Federation citizen (TNG: "The Measure of a Man"). In the end, the arbitrator leaves the decision of whether or not the Doctor is a person as out of the scope of the case, however, he does declare that the Doctor is an artist and therefore has full rights concerning the distribution of his holonovel. Unforunately, the novel has already been seen by millions. The consequences of this for the crew are not shown, however, the episode ends showing the rest of the EMH Mark Is working in a mine. One is told to report for his recurring maintenance by another EMH, and it is recommended that he also ask to use a most enlightening program that is available. It is never stated if this is the original or revised version of the Doctor's holonovel. Log Entries *''Captain's log, stardate 54732.3. It's been three weeks since we received Starfleet's instructions in the last data stream. We're finally ready to begin Operation Watson. We're all holding our breath. '' *''Chief medical officer's personal log, stardate 54740.8. Although the decision has made me unpopular with the crew, I've decided not to compromise my work. I'm making some final revisions to the program before transmitting it. '' *''Captain's log, stardate 54748.6. A Federation arbitrator has been assigned to determine whether the Doctor has the right to control his artistic creation. Because of our limited com time with Earth, the arguments should take about three days. '' Memorable Quotes "This is outrageous!" "What's outrageous is that I'm going to miss my tee time." : - The Doctor and Paris' fictional doctor "Sorry, it's just frustrating to hear that I have no more legal standings than a replicator." : - The Doctor "Captain Janeway murders a crewman?!" "Actually it was Captain Jenkins." : - Harry Kim and Tom Paris "They're triplets, ya know!" "I'm here for my physical." : - Paris' fictional doctor and female Ensigns "I'm impressed... I haven't seen a dilithium matrix THIS far out of alignment since I served on a Ferengi garbage scow!" : - Torrie "You get me out of sickbay so you're free to give my patient a tonsillectomy?" :- B'Elanna Torres "It's called ''Photons Be Free. It's quite provocative." :- '''EMH Mark I' telling another EMH Mark I in the dilithium mines about The Doctor's novel "Your mobile emitter? It was like carrying around a small shuttle craft!" : - B'Elanna Torres Background Information * This is the last episode of the series to be directed by David Livingston. * This was the 600th live action episode of Star Trek produced. * Barry Gordon previously played Nava in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Nagus". * With this episode, Robert Duncan McNeill becomes the only other Voyager cast member (besides Robert Picardo) to wear all three department colours on his uniform. (Paris usually wears red, wore gold in "Worst Case Scenario", and wears blue here.) * Ensign Kim's mother implies that she has never spoken to Janeway (she says Janeway "sounds like a lovely woman"), yet in "Caretaker", Janeway, describing Kim's mother as "delightful", says that she had told her that she couldn't send her son's clarinet on to the ship as there wasn't time. Links and References Main Cast *Kate Mulgrew as **Kathryn Janeway **Captain Jenkins *Robert Beltran as **Chakotay **Katanay *Roxann Dawson as **B'Elanna Torres **Torrie *Robert Duncan McNeill as **Tom Paris **Marseille *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as **Tuvok **Tulok *Jeri Ryan as **Seven of Nine **Three of Eight **Two of Three *Garrett Wang as **Harry Kim **Kimball Guest Stars *Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay *Richard Herd as Admiral Paris *Irene Tsu as Mary Kim *Robert Ito as John Kim *Juan Garcia as John Torres *Barry Gordon as Arden Broht *Joseph Campanella as Arbitatror *Lorinne Vozoff as Irene Hansen *Brock Burnett as Male N.D. *Jennifer Hammon as Female N.D. *Heather Young as Sickbay N.D. References Adventures of Captain Proton, The; Alpha Quadrant; aortic rupture; artificial lifeform; Bajoran; Bolian; biradial clamp; Borg; Broht and Forrester; coffee; Cooking with Neelix, a Culinary Tour of the Delta Quadrant; Daystrom Prize; dermal regenerator; dilithium; dilithium matrix; Dixon Hill series; Federation law; Ferengi garbage scow; Ferengi mating dance; gigaquad; holo-cookbook; holo-novel; hyper spanner; hypochondriac; isolinear chip; K'Ratak; Kessik IV; kilogram; Klingon aphrodisiac; McKinley Station; Miral; mobile emitter; North America; Operation Watson; optronic pathways; Paris, Miral; Pathfinder Project; plasma burn; plasma conduit; Photons Be Free; program 47 beta; quantum singularity; Qo'noS; San Francisco; slavery; solar flare; Starfleet Command; strawberry, strawberry tart; tachyon beam; Toby the targ; Talaxian; Tolstoy, Leo; tonsillectomy; Twelfth Guarantee; Vedek's Song, The; ''Vortex'', USS; ''Voyager'', USS; ''Voyeur'', USS; Zimmerman, Louis Category:VOY episodes de:Die Veröffentlichung nl:Author, Author